cobalt

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: co=balt

CIDE DICTIONARY

cobalt, n. [G. kobalt, prob. fr. kobold, kobel, goblin, MHG. kobolt; perh. akin to G. koben pigsty, hut, AS. cofa room, cofgodas household gods, Icel. kofi hut. If so, the ending -old stands for older -walt, -wald, being the same as -ald in E. herald and the word would mean ruler or governor in a house, house spirit, the metal being so called by miners, because it was poisonous and troublesome. Cf. Kobold, Cove, Goblin.].

•  A tough, lustrous, reddish white metal of the iron group, not easily fusible, and somewhat magnetic. Atomic weight 59.1. Symbol Co.  [1913 Webster]

  " It occurs in nature in combination with arsenic, sulphur, and oxygen, and is obtained from its ores, smaltite, cobaltite, asbolite, etc. Its oxide colors glass or any flux, as borax, a fine blue, and is used in the manufacture of smalt. It is frequently associated with nickel, and both are characteristic ingredients of meteoric iron."  [1913 Webster]
•  A commercial name of a crude arsenic used as fly poison.  [1913 Webster]

Cobalt bloom. Same as Erythrite. -- Cobalt blue, a dark blue pigment consisting of some salt of cobalt, as the phosphate, ignited with alumina; -- called also cobalt ultramarine, and Thenard's blue. -- Cobalt crust, earthy arseniate of cobalt. -- Cobalt glance. (Min.) See Cobaltite. -- Cobalt green, a pigment consisting essentially of the oxides of cobalt and zinc; -- called also Rinman's green. -- Cobalt yellow (Chem.), a yellow crystalline powder, regarded as a double nitrite of cobalt and potassium.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

cobalt, n. Chem. a silvery-white magnetic metallic element occurring naturally as a mineral in combination with sulphur and arsenic, and used in many alloys.

Idiom

cobalt blue
1 a pigment containing a cobalt salt.
2 the deep-blue colour of this.

Usage

Symb.: Co.

Derivative

cobaltic adj. cobaltous adj.

Etymology

G Kobalt etc., prob. = KOBOLD in mines

ROGET THESAURUS

cobalt

Blueness

N blueness, blue, garter-blue, watchet, ultramarine, smalt, cobalt, cyanogen, Prussian blue, syenite blue, bice, indigo, zaffer, lapis lazuli, sapphire, turquoise, indicolite, blueness, bluishness, bloom, blue, azure, cerulean, sky-blue, sky-colored, sky-dyed, cerulescent, powder blue, bluish, atmospheric, retiring, cold.